Best and the rest of the past week

Published 7:21 pm, Monday, August 31, 2009

Thumbs up to the construction crews and town public works employees who helped finish the cleanup of O'Sullivan's Island, 20 acres of land off-limits to residents for years. O'Sullivan's Island, now a peninsula thanks to decades of dumping material into the landfill there, had once been the home of a fire-training academy and Derby's landfill, both of which severely polluted the island's natural landscape. City officials eventually plan to use the 20 acres of land at the juncture of the Housatonic and Naugatuck rivers for recreational purposes, but have not yet opened the site to the public to allow time for the landscaping, which includes 30 newly planted crab apple, oak and maple trees, to develop. The federal Environmental Protection Agency helped make the project happen, contributing about $3 million needed to bring the land back into public use. The city expects several more grants to continue revamping the island, and plans include establishing a baseball field and picnic area. The future at last looks bright for O'Sullivan's Island.

Thumbs down to the rat invasion of P.T. Barnum Apartments housing complex and Longfellow School. While the apartments have had issues with mice before, rats have only started appearing in large numbers after recent construction at the Bridgeport Regional Aquaculture Center nearby. Some residents believe the construction disturbed the rats' natural habitat and provoked them to infiltrate human dwellings; others speculate the rats are coming from an empty lot near the construction site and housing complex. Regardless of their origins, the rodent issue should be a priority for Bridgeport housing officials. The response to date has been disappointing, despite tenant reports of seeing several rats a night. As the city lacks a rodent control program, it is vital that city officials take firm action and rid both the housing complex and school of the rat invasion for public sanitation reasons.

Thumbs down to a recession-wracked downtown restaurant scene in Bridgeport. The successes should not be overlooked, especially on Fairfield Avenue and a stretch of Main Street. But the grand plans for a wide range of eateries in the neighborhood have taken a severe hit from the economic downturn, with many businesses in danger of closing and others unable to get off the ground. Like everything else, funding is hard to come by these days, and the effect is to put a damper on some high hopes. The plan has always been to bring people downtown by offering a variety of dining options, and that's been successful, to a point. But many plans, from a Thai restaurant to a karaoke bar to an outdoor cafe, have been cut short by the recession. The economy will turn around at some point; the city needs to hope owners can hold onto their plans through these dark days and give it another try down the road.

Thumbs down to a project that went forward without considering neighborhood views. The United Methodist Homes on Long Hill Avenue in Shelton went ahead with construction of an emergency generator that would run in the event of a power outage. But the Planning and Zoning Commission did not sign off on the project, and neighbors are concerned about noise. The project did win approval from the city's Building Department, but officials say that shouldn't have happened, and in any case should not have been enough to allow the generator's construction. This week, the Zoning Commission was presented with an after-the-fact application for the generator at its monthly meeting, which doesn't help anyone. The commission plans to meet at the site and gauge the noise levels likely to be generated, so neighbors may get a reprieve. But the project should not have reached this level in the first place.